Limited impact?

Religion | Both sides celebrate Prison Fellowship ruling | Mindy Belz

Inmates in a Bible class at the Carol Vance Unit in Richmond, Texas

A Dec. 3 federal appeals court ruling on the constitutionality of a faith-based prison rehabilitation program has both sides claiming victory. The panel, which included former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and two appellate judges, ruled that state funding of the six-year-old program run by Prison Fellowship at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility is unconstitutional because it advanced or endorsed religion. But it did not require the program, which since June 2006 has operated using private funds, to be shut down.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the group that brought the lawsuit, said the ruling "is a major setback" for the Bush administration's faith-based initiatives and said "it reaffirms that the government must ensure that public funds are not used for religious instruction."